Joe Kubert Presents #5 – Review

By: Joe Kubert, Sam Glanzman, Brian Buniak (story & art), Paul Levitz (story)

The Story: If you need a reminder that war is bad, keep reading.

The Review: We all admittedly have things we can learn from those older and wiser than us.  Still, I think we can agree that we’d be more inclined to learn them if the old and the wise didn’t use pontificating lectures as their mode of teaching so much of the time.  It’s enough that they tell their stories and experiences; most of us are smart enough to understand the lessons ourselves.  When they start pushing the lesson on you, that’s when you get a little more ornery.

Thus far, this mini has been pretty good about simply telling the story instead of shoving a moral into your face.  Levitz reverses that trend immediately by giving us an actual history lesson, one delivered by an honest-to-goodness history teacher to his son.  While the young Garret takes his dad’s points in stride, us readers feel more like the bored kids in the back of the classroom.  “Farewell” may claim to feature Sgt. Rock, but you never get an actual story out of it.  Even worse, the constant adulation over the war hero distracts from Garret and his dad’s appreciation for the war hero in their own family.  While Kubert draws figures of war with great dignity, I can’t say he does much to enliven this rambling feature.

World’s Finest #4 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (story), George Pérez, Scott Koblish, Kevin Maguire (art), Hi-Fi & Rosemary Cheetham (colors)

The Story: Next: Japan executes a nationwide no-entrance decree for Huntress and Power Girl.

The Review: Let me tell you, whenever I finally buckle down to drop a title, I always feel a relaxing feeling of relief, like breathing through your nose after a month of congestion or setting down a backpack full of textbooks after a long walk.  That feeling lets me know that I’m making the right decision, and usually it gets preceded with a pretty substantial amount of longing for the moment I can finally unburden myself of something which gives me little pleasure.

And so it goes with this series.  I can’t deny the end comes with some disappointment.  I always want to support female-led titles, either in terms of characters or creators, so when they don’t work out, it feels like a step back for the cause, to a certain extent.  But this title has also failed to live up to its own aspirations.  World’s Finest was once the glowing byword by which one referred to DC’s two greatest icons, and to be honest, the pre-relaunch Supergirl and Batgirl naturally had more of that World’s Finest feel than Power Girl and Huntress.

World’s Finest #3 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (story), George Pérez (pencils), Scott Khoblish (inks), Kevin Maguire (art), Hi-Fi & Rosemary Cheetham (colors)

The Story: Japan is getting pretty sick of both destructive behemoths and nuclear crises.

The Review: Look, these are comics, and I will never demand that they obey the laws of physics or rules of behavior we live by in the real world.  But comic book readers are real-world humans, so you can’t just let a story leap off the logic train altogether.  Pseudo-science may drive actual scientists crazy, but when it’s well done and based off of some semblance of natural rules, then at least its falseness doesn’t take you out of the story’s believability.

I’m guessing Levitz doesn’t have the firmest grasp on scientific principles.  I don’t either, which is why I feel very suited in saying this.  At one point, Huntress claims that her “unnaturally high hereditary immunity to all sorts of poisons” will somehow shield her from the effects of being drenched in both radiation and (from the looks of it) fresh radioactive waste.  Judging by my high school physics and chemistry scores alone, I’m an idiot when it comes to this kind of thing, but even I recognize how incredibly stupid—there really is no other word for it—Huntress’ words sound.  And that’s really all it takes to pull the rug out from the whole story.

World’s Finest #2 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (story), George Pérez (pencils), Scott Koblish (inks), Kevin Maguire (art), Hi-Fi & Rosemary Cheetham (colors)

The Story: BFFS don’t just picnic and shop together—they fight mutant criminals together!

The Review: Without a doubt, the criticism I hold against Levitz the most is his hammy dialogue, but what do I mean by that, exactly?  It’s one thing to say a line sounds over the top or melodramatic, but can you really identify the features that make it that way?  Or are you more like Justice Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court, who very infamously declared that “hard-core pornography” is hard to define, but “I know it when I see it”?

I tend to break things down this way: if it’s something you’d feel sweaty and lame saying out loud, then it probably isn’t very natural or convincing.  In any form of media, dialogue like that tends to be the kind better kept silent and formless in a person’s heart than expressed in words.  Take, for example, when Huntress glares at Hakkou as he beats down on Kara and muses, “…no one—no one—hurts my best friend like that.  No one.”  What I find silly about this kind of narration is it just states the obvious; it’s the equivalent of watching a cinema kiss and having a voiceover saying, “Nothing—nothing—feels better than Frenching this person I love.  Nothing.”

Worlds’ Finest #1 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (story), George Pérez (pencils), Scott Koblish (inks), Kevin Maguire (art), Hi-Fi & Rosemary Cheetham (colors)

The Story: Introducing the Thelma and Louise of the DCU.

The Review: Longtime readers of the site know the dissatisfaction I felt reading Levitz’s work on Legion of Super-Heroes and Adventure Comics.  At the time, his writing came off pedestrian and outdated, unable to inject any of his old energy into the characters he helped make famous.  But longtime readers also know that I’m always willing to give creators a fresh look when they offer something new.

So although I have zero interest in jumping aboard the leaky ship that is Legion of Super-Heroes again, seeing what Levitz can do with Huntress and Power Girl sounds a lot more palatable. From the start, Levitz has a very clear vision of how his heroines think and how they interact.  Helena Wayne, in contrast to the hotheaded avenger she was as Helena Bertinelli, seems cooler, more sensible and down-to-earth.  Karen Starr doesn’t seem all that changed from her usual portrayal: brassy and full of life, she thinks and dreams big, in perfect proportion to her b…right and vivacious personality.  At every turn, Helena tries to rain on her friend’s parade (“You go on believing in fairy tales, princess…I’m making the best of this nightmare.”) and Karen lets it roll right off her back (“Best part of a nightmare is waking up.”).

The Spirit #17 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: You ever get the feeling some people can only see the world in black and white?

The Review: As much history and acclaim lies behind The Spirit, it really doesn’t have much of a mythos.  You have the core cast, of course, and the faceless Octopus as Spirit’s possibly eternal archnemesis, and a handful of recurring characters, but unlike any other major comic-book figure out there, the Spirit has few defining storylines and even less continuity.  Most writers and artists use the series more as a vehicle to stretch their storytelling chops than to tell a substantial story.

In “Strange Bedfellows,” Howard Chaykin gives us the oldest plot in pulp, the “Whodunnit?”  Unfortunately, since he shares the issue with two other features, he has scale back his plot and character development to the point where you never really get invested in either.  Half the fun of these mysteries is having the detective make deductive connections from the facts you somehow miss, but Chaykin goes for the strategy of having the Spirit pull conclusions out of thin air, almost making them up as he goes along: “Wearing your husband’s shoes with Sandra on your shoulders, to leave those heavy size-twelve footprints…using a recording of Brian raging at you to sell his suicide…”  Brian Bolland offers strong character figures and detailed settings, but doesn’t use the black-and-white constraints to his advantage, making it look like very nice inks the colorist forgot to fill in.

Paul Levitz delivers one that feels like it barely moves beyond the conception stage.  “Lottery” revolves around Brenner, a newsman whose doormat personality makes him sympathetic, but no less shallow in depth.  As for Ivan, the conman who preys on the hapless newsie, his brilliant plan is to replace the state-approved lottery board on Brenner’s stand with his own, a blatant substitution that makes you wonder why frequent visitor the Spirit doesn’t catch on sooner.  It’s also baffling why Brenner doesn’t just ask the Spirit, whom he considers the only man who respects him, to help him out.  So you’re not inclined to feel all that moved by the unfortunate, but hardly tragic by any means, ending.  Dolan has a point: “Fools who play these games deserve to lose, anyway.”  Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez provides enjoyable, lively versions of our characters, but needs more inking; it all looks so pale you’ll find it difficult to stare at it for too long.

Adventure Comics #528 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Geraldo Borges & Ransom Getty (pencillers), Marlo Alquiza & Rob Hunter (inkers), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: Now would be the time to sing the Legion Academy school song, but no one has kazoos on hand, do they?

The Review: Back when Jim Shooter took over the Legion “Three-boot,” the estimable comic book blogger Rokk Krin compared the move to getting a famed football coach out of retirement to rework the magic with a failing team.  I think that analogy works very well to summarize the situation we have with Levitz on the current Legion.  No one can deny his now legendary run with the team back in the day, but that’s where the brilliance has stayed: back in the day.

The formulaic writing which drove me away from Legion of Super-Heroes has undeniably reared its ugly head in the sibling title, as this entire issue reads much the same as almost every issue prior.  Developments, both in terms of plot or character, come minimally, if at all.  Mostly Levitz just recycles the same talking points that have long since failed to illicit anything approaching excitement, or even interest to see what will happen next.

Take the Legion Academy graduates.  Their final exam back in Adventure Comics #525 should’ve been the last we ever saw of these guys, especially since they offered virtually no worth or substance to this title to begin with.  But once again, we have to devote ourselves to far too many pages listening to them bemoan their fates about not getting into the Legion (because whining is such a cherished virtue among Legionnaires).

Legion of Super-Heroes #14 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Fernando Dagnino & Raul Fernandez (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: If it is wisdom you seek, die first.  No, I’m not kidding.

The Review: When this title rebooted last year, it introduced the character of Harmonia Li to be of some significance and then pretty much shelved her.  Yet Levitz never really allowed the her to be forgotten; she continued to dog this series, reappearing in the most random moments of often unrelated story arcs to remind us of her vague existence, but never actually following up with any real interest.

This issue finally gets into her mysterious origins, and it’s underwhelming, to say the least: as it turns out, she is a denizen of Utopia, a world of wisdom, which just happens to be the last target on Saturn Queen’s demolition list.  Since Levitz spent so little time in previous arcs laying the groundwork for this revelation, it really comes out of nowhere, and feels more like a convenient too to allow the Legion to access an otherwise inaccessible world.

Still, Levitz deserves some credit for neatly tying all his disparate plotlines into one common thread: Dream Girl’s attempt to purge Star Boy of—something—in his costume; Dawnstar’s search for the being that attacked her and Wildfire; Mon-El’s quest across space with Dyogene; and of course, the Legion of Villains’ quest for the three worlds of balance.  The cost, of course, is none of these were explored in enough detail to be of any interest, resulting in a climax that lacks much in the way of excitement or novelty.

Certainly, Levitz’s dialogue does nothing to help matters, having finally descended from purely clichéd and pointless (the issue starts actually starts off with, “Nooo!”) to completely incomprehensible.  Both Dyogene and Master Kong of Utopia are given to speak gibberish as a pretense of wisdom: “…and if Dyogene’s master of the rings’ power is greater, know that this moment was foreseen long ago in shaping this one.”  “…but if man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.”  Tortured grammar is the least of their problems.

Adventure Comics #527 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Geraldo Borges (penciller), Marlo Alquiza (inker), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: Calling the love of your life chubby may not be the best way to get on his good side.

The Review: Of the Legion Academy cast, Comet Queen is most likely to have any familiarity, first appearing to the Legion in the eighties (also under Levitz’s pen) then joining the first set of Academy recruits.  As such, she has the most developed personality and history among her classmates and she acts as a direct link between them and their mentors.

All this is grounds to question why Levitz would choose to devote an entire issue to retelling her origins.  Her motivations for wanting to join the Legion read like a stalker’s biopic: small-town girl, enamored with a Legionnaire (Bouncing Boy, of all people), follows any and every crazy impulse possible to get close to him.  She literally stands in the path of a passing comet, turning her into a super-powered energy creature instead of, well, space dust.

About halfway through her story, you’ll regret that comet didn’t just toast her off, as most of her astoundingly shallow behavior rings home just how annoying a character she is.  Her ridiculous speech patterns are just the tip of the iceberg, but they demonstrate very well Levitz’s often unwise storytelling decisions.  Such obviously artificial dialogue wears thin quickly if not written with some restraint, and he goes all-out, giving you lines like, “Settle your grav-drive in, and I’ll tell you, still-shaking-from-your-first-thrill-ride-girl…”

Levitz spends more time glossing over the major events of her life, and so fails to make her very sympathetic.  Getting pawned to the Legion of Substitute Heroes hardly merits her description of them as “burned-out stars that never shined” (look how many ended up in the Legion proper).  Her mind-wipe at the hands of Saturn Queen has more potential to give her character some depth, but Levitz avoids showing you any really harmful effects.  Her first reaction upon waking from the wipe is to love-tackle Bouncing Boy—which she probably would’ve done anyway.

Legion of Super-Heroes #13 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Jonathan Glapion (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: Geez, Saturn Queen–someone took her total jag pill this morning.

The Review: One of the major weaknesses of this story arc so far—and frankly, there have been many—is how much we still don’t know about this mysterious benefactor-guide of Saturn Queen’s, especially since he/she/it has got her planet-hopping all over the place trying to find these three ancient worlds for some reason or other.  The lack of a clear goal for our villains definitely makes the stakes for the Legionnaires all that less interesting.

This issue we actually get some face-time with the “blue flame” entity, a little blue dude in a kind of alien kilt-skirt, just about the cutest fella to ever dream of senseless galactic chaos.  Considering the fairly enormous scale of Saturn Queen’s mission, you’d think the reveal of her mission-giver would have a similarly enormous impact, but he doesn’t.  You get a face to this enemy, but that’s about it.

Despite all his grandstanding (“…my dreams over the endless centuries of exile shall be fulfilled…”), you really learn nothing about his goals.  Several issues into the story arc, we still don’t know what the big plan is here, other than a vague desire to destroy “galactic civilization” (the United Planets, I’m assuming).  Considering how many times the Legion has defeated that ambition from villains with far more threatening appearances, we’ve no reason to believe this time will be any different.

One new wrinkle involves Saturn Queen’s offer to have Earth Man join her team in exchange for having his way with Earth when she and Blue Flame Dude destroy all order, or whatever.  If this testing of our favorite xenophobe sheds light on how he switched loyalties to the Legion in the first place, or at least how he and Shadow Lass hooked up, then it’ll be worthwhile.  But since almost every Legionnaire expects him to backstab them at some point anyway, his possible betrayal doesn’t have all that much tension.

And each time you think you’re on the verge of finally learning something about Harmonia Li, you get instead more highbrow vagaries (“There are consequences more important than his life, or yours…”) and a scene-cut.  It’s really reached the point where you can’t bring yourself to care anymore; whatever her significance to this title, it can’t possible merit thirteen issues of guest appearances, only to dance around the subject at hand.

Adventure Comics #526 – Review

By: Paul Levitz & Geraldo Borges (storytellers), Marlo Alquiza (inker), Hi-Fi (colorist), Jeffrey Moy (2^nd feature penciller), Philip Moy (2^nd feature inker)

The Story: Glorith performs the first genetic exorcism, and XS tries her hand at modern art.

The Review: Even though DC’s co-features largely didn’t work, the concept of them as bonus tales to your title’s usual offerings had a nice appeal.  Whether they were worth the tacked-on dollar was arguable, but they never harmed the main series story-wise.  Occasionally they even enhanced their partner feature, if the creators put a little effort into it.

Not so here.  Levitz’s follow-up features have done little for his ongoing storyline except take away space that could’ve been devoted to more action and plotting.  Chemical Kid’s family problems had the potential to be a strong opening arc for these kids’ misadventures, but four issues in, the pace reduced to a crawl, the story still hasn’t got the excitement or intrigue it needs.  The stolen gene-mods could’ve been the first step to a much larger adversary for the Legion wannabes, but Levitz seems intent on letting the plot end on an anticlimactic note.

At least he spends time giving some interesting new shades to our young heroes.  Dragonwing gives off a tough vibe, but she’s also sensitive to her teammates’ feelings, even smoothing tensions between Gravity Kid and Chem Kid.  Glorith may be naïve about the modern world, but she’s respectfully strict about her magical traditions.  And Chem Kid’s lack of scruples when it comes to money may be the thing that gets between him and being a true hero.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #12 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Jonathan Glapion (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: An egomaniacal, power-hungry diva gets a massive boost in telepathy and decides she’s queen of the universe—what are the odds?

The Review: The Legion is such a sprawling team with such a wide scope of influence—basically the entire galaxy and perhaps beyond—that their potential mission load can be quite infinite.  On the same count, it’s very easy to spread them too thin without ever giving them anything worth following.  Unfortunately, that seems to be the case with Levitz’s current run on this title.

Remember in my review of last issue when I thought Levitz was finally on the verge of following up on Harmonia Li’s nigh-forgotten storyline?  Remember how she suddenly appeared in Brainiac’s lab out of nowhere and delivered a particularly foreboding cliffhanger: “This is all my fault”?  Well, it turns out Brainy’s going to let that one pass and we get to wait until the next issue—if we’re lucky—to see if that plot goes anywhere, or at least wraps up gracefully.

Levitz chooses to bring us back to Saturn Queen’s quest for three planets of cosmic influence, which honestly still doesn’t quite feel very high-stakes.  No case has been made on how integral these planets are to the universe’s well-being (considering the Rock of Eternity was reduced to rubble and no seems to have noticed).  You’re also not inclined to take the whole deal very seriously since you have no idea what S-Queen’s after—or what will happen if/when she gets it.

This issue features more of the same stuff we’ve been getting for a while: a duo or trio of Legionnaires duking it out with the baddie du jour.  These fights would be more exciting if there weren’t so many of them squeezed into one issue, limiting each battle to a couple pages each.  Levitz doesn’t make the most of them either, as the team hardly ever uses their powers very creatively (Colossal Boy especially—this is the second time in a row he’s been KO’d within four panels of the fight just starting).

Adventure Comics #525 – Review

By: Paul Levitz & Phil Jimenez (storytellers), Andy Lanning & Sean Parsons (inkers), Hi-Fi (colorist), Geraldo Borges & Marlo Alquiza (2^nd feature artists)

The Story: It’s not easy having a dad who gives superpowers to the people trying to kill you.

The Review: Having a magic-user on your superhero team can be a great idea in practice, but very risky for a comics writer.  Magic can be a great catalyst for telling stories, but it can get out of hand very quickly.  Too often, magicians end up acting as deus ex machina by instantly getting their team out of otherwise inescapable scrapes—just look at Dr. Strange on the Avengers, or Zatanna on the Justice League.

There’s plenty of reason to fear Glorith will wind up doing the same thing for her Legion Academy mates.  With all her pals out of commission, she still manages to take down the rest of the gene-modified gangsters by herself using some vaguely portrayed powers (Illusions?  Mind control?  Telekinesis?).  Let’s hope Levitz doesn’t make this a habit—it can get old pretty fast.

On top of that, you have the dissatisfying non-conclusion to Chemical Kid’s storyline, where as it turns out, his dad’s been selling off his gene-mod tech to cover his gambling debts.  It’s a pretty cliché sort of explanation that doesn’t lead anywhere, although it’s kind of fun to see Chem Kid’s dad as a whimpering coward. The kids don’t really have a chance to do anything about it either, since Levitz chooses to abridge their plot with two other stories in the issue.

Senior Academy members Lamprey and Power Boy get their graduation final by taking down some exotic animal smugglers (which, amusingly enough, include elephants—nice to know we haven’t completely killed them off by the 31^st century).  It’s a low-stakes test, and since you don’t really know the Legion-hopefuls all that well, you have little interest in their success.  Let’s hope their getting shunted to prison duty on Takron-Galtos ends their part in this title for good.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #11 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Daniel HDR & Wayne Faucher (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: It’s like playing Where’s Waldo?, only with several dozen super-powered criminals across interplanetary space.  That’s fun, right?

The Review: It’s a common issue in comics that once you take a step back from the flashy action sequences and charged emotional scenes, you realize there’s really nothing happening beneath it all.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with the decompressed story arc, but unless the writer can pack each issue with enough compelling material to make it worthwhile, the whole thing can seem like a needlessly dragged out plot.

If you read Legion of Super-Villains, you quickly realize Saturn Queen is not only in complete control, but she also has all the answers to their long-term plans and goals.  Essentially, she’s the only villain we’re interested in, since all her subordinates act only to serve her.  That leaves little depth or motivation to the goons the Legion tackles in this issue; their only purpose seems to be vying with each other to gain Saturn Queen’s favor, and there’s little fun in that.

With such narrow-minded minions, it’s no wonder they come across so goofy—take Sun Emperor’s confrontation with Timber Wolf: “One dead Legionnaire will surely put me back in the queen’s good graces…two or three would be a surfeit of offerings!”

The Legionnaires don’t fare much better, since their action dialogue still induces uncontrollable cringing from you.  It’s as if Levitz feels they have to banter, so he injects these silly, forced riffs while they’re in action: “Now let the boys collect them.”  “Let’s not be sexist—that’s centuries out of style.”  “They didn’t mean anything, Ayla.”  “It’s called teamwork.  Get over it.”  When they act this nonchalant, it’s hard to take their battles seriously.

Adventure Comics #524 – Review

By: Paul Levitz & Phil Jimenez (storytellers), Andy Lanning (inker), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: What—my rich dad’s credit card is totally wiped?  He’s got to be in trouble, right?

The Review: The rite of passage for any teen superhero group usually involves disobeying their chaperones or having a run-in with foes out of their league.  Almost always, the two incidents go hand-in-hand, and they usually wind up testing the kids’ powers, their code of ethics, teamwork, friendships, and relationships to their mentors.  The success and value of this old plot usually depends on the setup for why they end up in trouble in the first place.

Levitz takes a rich, bratty know-it-all out for some kicks and turns the story into one about family ties, a very worthy change in gears.  Even after one issue, Chemical Kid’s snide (Bouncing Boy says “spirited,” but I’m going with Duplicate Girl on this one) attitude has already begun to wear thin, so it’s a relief to see he’s aware of his own jerkiness, and beneath the swagger, he’s actually very sentimental—look how tenderly he holds his damaged robot nanny.

Besides Chem Kid, all his Academy mates get some interesting character moments in this issue: Glorith’s magical destiny forcing her removal from her parents; Dragonwing’s own parents trying to sell her off; even Gravity Kid’s decision to join the others hints he’s not the totally strict do-gooder he seems.  These are all little threads that can easily spin into bigger storylines down the road, so Levitz clearly has far-sighted plans for this bunch of rascals.

In fact, if I may be so bold to say so, it feels Levitz is more invested in this team than he is with the full-blooded Legionnaires, or at least he writes them better.  His expository style of dialogue seems to suit characters with history left to spill more than it does characters that already know most of the ins and outs of each other.  When the Academy kids interact, it feels like they’re actively building relationships and learning, rather than bantering pointlessly.

Legion of Super-Villains – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Francis Portela (artist), Javier Mena (colorist)

The Story: Sworn to protect the universe from threats throughout the cosmos, these courageous heroes—oh no, wait—that’s the other Legion.  This is the one that wants to kill you.

The Review: Writing the villains always entails some risk because obviously, it’s an uphill battle trying to sell their criminal motivations.  Considering most comic-book villains also tend to be on the just plain crazy side, it can also be tricky giving them personality beyond their mad ravings.  It takes some subtlety or irony to make these unsavory folks fully-realized characters.

Saturn Queen definitely falls in the deranged category, but thankfully Levitz writes her twistedness with a palpable sense of how sinister she really is.  Her condescension to everyone, even her fellow villains, mixed with her now-amplified telepathy show that she just gets off on controlling people.  The way she turns her dissenters into groveling pawns (love her emasculating breakdown of Lightning Lord’s confidence) certainly lives up to the queen in her name.

In fact, she hogs so much of the spotlight, the other characters never get much opportunity to shine at all.  It’s a pity Levitz takes the trouble to assemble a fairly formidable team of antagonists then gives them nothing to do all issue except follow Saturn Queen’s orders—which includes a bumbling course through an interplanetary storm (only to change their minds at the last second) and a perplexed attempt to destroy the Rock of Eternity.

It’s pretty astonishing that for an oversized one-shot, almost nothing significant happens.  You get introduced to the premise and figures of note for a storyline that’ll no doubt play out in Legion of Super-Heroes, but otherwise the plotting and character work remain light.  Besides Saturn Queen and Lightning Lord, the other villains are new (?) and you get no handle on what dangers they pose, which seems a waste of a whole issue centered on villains.

One nice touch about Saturn Queen’s current plan to throw the entire universe into chaos (which, grand as it sounds, still seems pointless) is it ties into the force that destroyed Titan, a plot thread which seemed all but forgotten till now.  It also seems that Saturn Queen acts on behalf of even greater, mysterious power, and considering the huge scale of her mission, this may be the start of a whole new epic storyline for the Legion, which they sorely need.

Legion of Super-Heroes #10 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Wayne Faucher (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: Family, the ties that bind…and gag.  Chameleon Boy finds to his regret that having a rich aunt isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Review: Before I get to the specifics of this issue, I think it’s important I stake my claim as to why I think this series generally has been so unsatisfying to me so far.

I’m not a longtime Legion reader.  I started when Jim Shooter, a veteran Legion writer, took over the “Three”-boot Legion.  After I fell in love with the series, I read some of the biggest stories from past Legions, just to get myself up to speed.  Those stories were great, but they only made me happier to read the new adventures of a fresh Legion.  I was disappointed when DC chose to bring back the Silver Age team, but since I considered myself a Legion fan, I gave it a shot.

To me, the current Levitz legion reads much far too much like his run from the eighties.  It has all the stylistic qualities of overemotional, explicit dialogue and exposition that may have been the rage back then, but now just seem outdated and exaggerated.  Now, you have to remember that Shooter wrote and worked in the same period as Levitz, but his “Three”-boot scripts read as fresh and contemporary as any other title on the stands at the time.

Of course, the problem doesn’t lie entirely with Levitz’s writing.  You have to consider that this Legion is no longer a team of fresh-faced youths.  They aren’t so much the Teen Titans of the future anymore, but the Justice League—but considering how the current Justice League has so many young’uns on the team, this Legion feels even older than that.  I wrote in my first review of this series that it feels like the bulk of this Legion’s great tales have already passed; I have no reason to change that opinion.

Adventure Comics #523 – Review

By: Paul Levitz & Phil Jimenez (storytellers), Andy Lanning (inker), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: These ain’t your mama’s Legionnaires—they like to fight hard, and party hard.  And do it on their parents’ money, apparently.  Kids these days…

The Review: Bringing in a team of unknowns can be a risky, even redundant move, especially in the overpopulated universes of mainstream superhero comics.  There’s bound to be outrage over the neglect of established characters in favor of those who may turn out to be nothing better than thinly veiled copies of what’s already been done.  Still, new characters can inject fresh energy onto titles even when they’re raw, and it’s just plain fun to speculate on their possible evolutions.

Adventure Comics’ set of rookies breathes new life into the title—a good thing.  Since the futuristic team has returned to its Silver Age continuity, under the helm of Levitz, its veteran writer, the Legion seems a bit creaky with age when it should be appealing to a younger generation of devotees.  No one can tell if an all-new cast of young characters will do the job, but the interest they generate in their first issue looks and feels promising.

Levitz has clear direction in mind for these kids, allowing them to express their distinctive voices throughout the issue, though the focus lands mostly on a select number of the bunch.  Levitz wisely uses the newest recruit, Glorith, as a cipher to guide you through the setting and dynamic of the title.  Each snippet of dialogue reveals a layer to the character speaking, and they bounce off each other very well, making for a very lively sounding issue.

As strong as the dialogue can be in this issue, there are still a few weak links.  Levitz still overly relies on telling you straight up what’s happening.  The gimmick can really start to grate on your nerves during the action sequences, where lines like “Accelerating my own metabolism makes you sound so dreary—but it makes this easy!” sounds not only awkward, but ridiculously corny.  It’s a very old-school style from Levitz, which feels somewhat unnatural and melodramatic.

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1 – Review

By: Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen (writer/artist), John Dell & Scott Koblish (inkers), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: If you’re down on your luck, there are worse pals than a giant eyeball that grants wishes.  Plus—flying monkeys!

The Review: The annual poses an interesting challenge to comic book writers.  The added page count gives a lot more narrative freedom, but at the same time, readers can’t be depended upon to buy the thing with its bigger price point, so the stories can’t really be game-changers.  Most of the time you get a bunch of short features with varying degrees of quality; rarely does anyone attempt to stretch a feature across the whole thing.

Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen, however, are not men to shy away from a challenge, considering how long they’ve been in the biz.  Unfortunately, for all the ambition and buzz going into this issue, their tale of the Emerald Empress’s return only somewhat succeeds in validating the five bucks you’ll have to fork over for it.

The length of the issue demands a plot of fairly grand scale.  You can’t expect an epic, but there should be more than four Legionnaires getting tossed around by a temporarily revamped villain.  The actual events of the issue don’t have much meat to them, so the space is mostly filled with exposition, told with ever so much melodrama: “I felt a wave of energy from Orando minutes ago, and a strange shift—as though everything I had seen on the planet for weeks had been false, and a curtain was being pulled away.”

And when you don’t get big doses of exposition, you get treated to the uninspired, repetitive dialogue.  Most irritating is how frequently they spend whole slews of panels commenting on how this version of the Empress is different from the last one.  And for all the talk going on, you don’t really get a good sense of the characters’ personalities.  They all have the same aggressive, sarcastic voice, offering as little interest to their conversation as the action.

The Empress can’t be taken seriously as a threat because so much of her supposedly dastardly deeds are taken for granted.  The Legionnaires say a great deal about her corrupting the planet, but other than some weird plants and a medieval theme, you’re not sure what’s being corrupted.  Maybe if you get to see what Orando is like before the Empress mucks around with it, you’d have a better idea of her craziness, but for all appearances, Orando has always had a feudal society (check out the crossbows and girl-lusting lord).  It would also help to know more about the current girl held in the Eye of Ekron’s thrall other than she’s crazy.

Legion of Super-Heroes #9 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Wayne Faucher (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: Brainiac 5 and Chameleon Boy hit up Durla for some new leads to the assassinations on the United Planets Council, while Tyroc and Timber Wolf try to prevent more deaths.

The Review: The Legion’s massive cast tends to pose a lot of difficulties for writers.  For one thing, it takes a lot of effort to give each Legionnaire a fair chance in the spotlight.  For another, keeping track of all their different personalities and backgrounds in the context of whatever storyline they’re caught up in can be a taxing juggling act.  Then there’s the obstacle of dreaming up a mission/opponent big enough to challenge for the two dozen or so members.

Paul Levitz has the expertise to handle all three of these problems, but he doesn’t do so with much inspiration.  This Durlan plot to assassinate the UP council just doesn’t have much teeth to it.  Some of the missing bite comes from how unthreatening the assassins have been portrayed so far.  They’re quite lousy at assassinating people; across three issues, they’ve only managed to kill off two individuals, one of which had almost no importance attached whatsoever.  If there’s a bigger mastermind behind all this, let’s hope he or she (or it—we’re dealing with Durlans here, after all) shows up soon, because the henchmen aren’t really selling.

There’s little reason to hope more formidable opponents will pop up anytime soon, considering the sluggish pace Legion has now.  By the end of the issue, all you’re left looking forward to is a visit to Chameleon Boy’s aunt, who may or may not be directly or indirectly connected to the Durlan conspiracy.  That’s the kind of stakes the Legion deals with now.  Like Timber Wolf says, “We’re Legionnaires—not nursemaids!”  Quite right—shouldn’t they be out preventing galactic war, or trying to stop an invasive species of hyper-flies from eating the time-space continuum, instead of mostly waiting around for an opportunity to thwart some raging shapeshifters for the umpteenth time?

The Legion of Super-Heroes #8 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Daniel HDR (pencillers), Wayne Faucher & Bob Wiacek (inkers), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: The Durlan assassination attempts continue, this time targeting their own people and the Legionnaires themselves.  As the team spreads even thinner to face the growing number of threats, they can only hope the newly elected Legion leader is up to the job.

The Review: If you ever become a fiction writer, in any medium, you’ll learn there aren’t many rules in the business, but here are two that are essential to the success of any story: whatever you’re writing, it must constantly be accomplishing one or both of two things—building character, or advancing the story.  This issue of Legion does none of the former and just a smidgeon of the latter.

In a way, it’s an achievement in itself how an entire issue can go by without accomplishing much of anything.  A new Legion leader is elected, but with no fanfare and without that leader (I’ll resist from spoiling even the leader’s gender) even present in the issue.  The Legionnaires fight several battles with more Durlan assassins and yet no new information about their mission or motivation really comes to light.  Well, except for Tellus’ telepathic probing of one of the murderous Durlans, which results in the following: “Even if only one of us lives, the United Planets Council will die.”  Dire as it sounds, it’s pretty much what the Durlans have been attempting to do the past couple issues without much success.

It’s really troubling how the characters show almost no personality in this issue.  Part of the problem is so much of their dialogue is expository, and that exposition only reiterates what’s already happening.  Their voices have so little character that you could pretty much replace any of the Legionnaires with any of the others and the story would hardly be affected at all.  All the dialogue has the same straightforward, urgent tone that lends well to melodramatically stating the obvious (“You are powerful, human—but you are not a true changer!”  “I can do anything you can, Durlan—and better.”)  I hate to use this word, but sometimes the characters simply sound stupid, as if despite the ten-century jump, their brains are as dry as croutons.

Adventure Comics #521 – Review

Lead Story By: Paul Levitz (writer), Geraldo Borges and Marlo Alquiza (artists)
Back Up Story By: Jeff Lemire (writer), Mahmud Asrar (penciller), John Dell (inker), Pete Pantazis (colorist)

The Lead Story: Some sort of Oan intelligence is looking for someone strong enough and fearless enough to carry a green lantern ring. In the meantime, a bunch of legionnaires are off in Uganda, trying to fix up after an earthquake that, after a little bit of investigating, doesn’t look very earthquaky, especially when it wallops a couple of them at better than the speed of light.

Lead Story What’s Good: Borges and Alquiza have an attractive, arresting art style that works really well on expressive faces (check out Shadow Lass or her racist boyfriend on pages 2 and 3) and interesting aliens (the Oan on page 2 or the close up on Tellus on page 6). That’s half the battle right there.

Story-wise, I was intrigued by the vanished Green Lantern corps and its last representative trying to revive the venerable force. That was interesting, although the Legion’s reactions seemed a bit odd and unexpectedly submissive. “Everyone come here so I can pick a new Green Lantern.” “No problem. Here we are.” Huh? Oh, well. The dialogue and writing worked for me as well, especially Dawnstar and Shadow Lass.

Lead Story What’s Not So Good: While Borges and Alquiza have some strengths, I think they’re still working on a few weaknesses as well. On weird camera angles or even just people looking up (splash page with the Oan on page 13 or Lar Gand on page 15), the proportions go all funny. The women are attractive, but obviously every one has had a cheap boob job leaving their mommy parts sticking out at odd angles in defiance of gravity and good taste. As well, in terms of composition, panel-wise and page-wise, the approach is very middle of the road. (Instructions: Put camera in standard position A. Pan right to standard position B. Repeat.) This left the panels themselves rarely dynamic, and the panels on the page didn’t feel like they were flowing from one to another. Some artists have tried some interesting things with diagonal layouts and odd-sized panels, but nothing innovative was tried here.

Writing-wise, I was surprised (negatively) that Levitz had picked such classical background action. The old legion stories were filled with the Legionnaires leaping into natural disasters (as only do-gooders can) and saving humans and endangered wildlife. I think that worked in the sixties, but comics have matured a lot since then and I didn’t feel this mood was quite up to what comics are capable of doing. I wasn’t invested in the disaster, so the action didn’t really pull me in.

Back Up Story: The Atom is in one dilly of a pickle. Dad is in the clutches of bad guys. The Atom’s belt is fried.

Back Up Story What’s Good: I bought the story in this feature, the conflict between hero and uncle, the redemption arc that was going on and the stakes (Dad’s in trouble). The art on this story was rougher, but more dynamic than the lead story, while remaining emotive and expressive.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #7 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Wayne Faucher (artists), Francis Portela (back-up artist)

The Story: Cosmic Boy, Timber Wolf, Ultra Boy, and Tyroc investigate the murder of a United Planets councilor, leading them to confront the assassins and prevent further government deaths.  Meanwhile, Sun Boy considers Legion leadership, and Mon-El and Earth-Man have words over Shadow Lass, Mon-El’s ex and Earth-Man’s current flame.  In the back-up story, Brainiac 5 and Chameleon Boy travel to Naltor, world of seers, where Chameleon Boy receives a disturbing vision of his future and Brainiac 5 interrogates Harmonia Li, a mystery from the past.

The Review: Part of what turns off many readers from Legion is the astonishing amount of baggage it’s packaged with.  When Geoff Johns revived the team in his “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes” story, he brought back the original Legionnaires with all their complex histories intact.  The result is a team that is somewhat wiser and more experienced, but also one that feels like most of its biggest adventures has already passed.

Paul Levitz is now responsible for crafting the great Legion stories to come, if there are any more to be had.  The first six issues of this series focused on establishing the current tone and dynamic of the team.  This newest issue should be the start of higher-stakes conflicts for the Legionnaires, but so far, there is little happening to generate much excitement.  The A-story in this issue—assassination attempts on UP councilors—seems slightly drab, since Levitz takes little time to show why we should care about whether these councilors die or not.  No one, least of all the Legionnaires, seems very distressed by what’s happening.

The low-key B and C-stories don’t help to shore up the weak primary plotline.  Mon-El and Earth-Man’s confrontation is so short, it doesn’t gain momentum, and happens almost out of nowhere.  Shadow Lass is a foxy girl, no doubt, but the brief exchange between her former and present lovers offers no reason why they’re fighting over her.  The even shorter discussion of Legion leadership doesn’t really move that plotline anywhere, and comes across as a pointless distraction to the other stories.  It would have made sense to cut the Brainiac back-up to develop the A-story more, or perhaps integrate the two altogether.  It just seems that with Levitz trying to advance four different plots simultaneously, the pace slows to a crawl as each plot moves an inch forward at a time.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #3 – Review

by Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar (pencils), Francis Portela (pencils & inks), Wayne Faucher (inks), Hi-Fi (colors), and Sal Cipriano (letters)

The Story: Earth-Man is forced to go on his first mission as a Green Lantern and the Legion finds itself pitted against Saturn Queen.

What’s Good: I absolutely love Earth-Man under Levitz’s hand.  He adds a really fun dynamic to the team, his dialogue is consistently dickish, and Levitz continues to tease new developments for the character.  I’ve really enjoyed Levitz’s placing Niedrigh in increasingly uncomfortable positions, and when, this month, he’s forced to save the lives of some tiny lifeforms on a far away planet, it’s really amusing in a “fish out of water” sort of way. Earth-Man’s constant tone of dismissive disgust is fun, but I’m starting to become increasingly interested in a possible redemption further down the road for the character, which may very well be the route Levitz is taking him.  It’s promising stuff and honestly, the more Earth-Man I get from Levitz the better.

Beyond this, much of what has made this Legion relaunch so successful this month recurs.  The large cast is handled aptly with all the characters feeling natural and in possession of their own unique voices.  Furthermore, by modern comic standards, this is another issue that is packed with content; a lot of narrative movement occurs.  While it’s not quite as ridiculously crammed as the last two issues, it’s still heftier than most comics and feels a bit more settled.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #2 – Review

by Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Francis Portela (pencils), Wayne Faucher & Francis Portela (inks), Hi-Fi (colors), and Sal Cipriano (letters)

The Story: Earth-Man joins his first mission with the Legion as the Legionnaires deal with the fall of Titan.  Meanwhile, Saturn Queen returns to wreak havoc.

What’s Good: In his return to writing duties, it’s clear that no one gave Levitz the memo about decompression.  Thank goodness for that because the result is that the Legion reads like no other book on the stands right now.  This book is thick.  It’s a 30 page story, but that doesn’t do justice to how dense it is.  Levitz somehow manages to perfectly balance the Legion’s notoriously large cast with around four to five sub-plots.  Much like last month’s debut, it’s mind blowing how much actually happens this month as well as how many scene changes there are.  This issue is so ridiculously packed with content and story that were it $2.99, I’d feel like I was short-changing DC.

What’s particularly remarkable is that Levitz never loses control.  Things never feel scattered.  More remarkable still is that Levitz finds time for a good amount of characterization.  All of the many characters carry distinct voices.  Braniac 5 in particular remains a total blast under Levitz’s pen.

Much like Levitz wonderfully manages his multitude of characters, he also is able to make every single of his sub-plots engaging.  Every plot strand left me wanting to know more and left me wanting next month’s issue.  What the heck is going on with Saturn Girl’s kids?  What’s Saturn Queen up to?  What’s going to happen to Titan’s refugees?  Individually, each of these plots is standard fare, I suppose, but when weaved together, the result is overwhelming.  It’s really fun to find so many corners of interest in a single comic.

I also enjoyed Levitz’s use of Earth-Man even more than last month.  Indeed, Earth-Man, for me, is the most intriguing of Levitz’s many threads, if only because so many questions abound, particularly regarding his Green Lantern ring and what he’ll end up doing with it.  Levitz is quickly fashioning Earth-Man into a fully realized, three dimensional character who is showing the potential to be more than a simple, xenophobic asshole.

I have nothing negative to say about Cinar’s work on this book.  It’s clear that he was the right choice for the Legion and he manages the book deftly, with a good mix of modern sleekness and the old school vibe that’s a necessity for a sci fi book like the Legion.  It’s nothing overly fancy, but it also remains friendly throughout.